The present invention relates generally to packaging and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for the automatic selection of a lid in a produce packing apparatus.
Produce packing, such as fruit packing, has traditionally been a labor intensive process. Trays of produce, such as apples, are manually filled by workers and delivered to a boxing station in an assembly line. The trays of produce are typically lowered into the box manually. An automated process for tray loading is disclosed in co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 09/516,821, entitled TRAY LIFT MECHANISM, which is assigned to the assignee of the present application. In this application, an apparatus for automatically loading and unloading the trays of produce is disclosed.
Prior to the loading of trays into boxes, printed symbology, such as a bar code, is attached to the bottom of the box to indicate the contents. At the same location in an assembly line, a lid is automatically assembled and installed over the bottom. That is a flattened lid is automatically extracted from a storage area, formed into a rectangle, and installed over the bottom. It is common in the produce packing industry that the lids for containers of produce are preprinted in advance. The preprinted lids may contain content information, indicating the type of produce in the container and the quality level of produce (e.g., a grade quality designation) and/or the identity of the produce packer or distributor. However, content and quality level may be printed on the lid in a subsequent operation.
In a conventional packing line, the lids and container bottoms are pre-assembled prior to loading the trays of produce into the container. The completed box (i.e., the container bottom and lid) are transported along the assembly line to a packing station where the loaded trays of produce are placed in the container.
At a subsequent location in the assembly line, the lid is sealed and a bar code reader reads the printed symbology to permit a printer to generate a bar code on the outside of the lid to indicate the contents of the box and prior additional size and grade information if required.
The drawback of this process is that only a single type of lid may be used in the assembly line process. Lids are generally provided to the produce packer in a flattened unassembled form. Conventional machinery is used to extract a single lid and to form it into a square or rectangular shape so that it may be positioned to received the loaded box of produce. While such an approach works effectively with a single distributor, most produce packers deal with a large number of distributors, which may be referred to herein as private label distributors or customers. Furthermore, many produce packers must deal with different types of produce and different quality designations for each type of produce. For example, an apple packer may deal with numerous different types of apples as well as different quality grades for each type of apple. Because the lids are preprinted, the produce packer must store sufficient quantities for all the necessary different lid combinations to meet production needs. Because only one lid type is used at a time, automated assembly lines often pre-assemble an excessive number of containers, which are directed to the location in the assembly line where trays of produce are placed in the containers. If the containers have already been packed with fruit, it will be necessary to perform an extra manual step of removing the extra inventory and manually adding the correct lid to the container. This results in labor inefficiencies as well as wasted packing material from lids that must be discarded. In another example, the pre-assembled box (i.e., the container bottom and lid) accumulate in the portion of the assembly line where produce trays are loaded into the containers. If too many boxes have been prepared, it becomes necessary to shut down the assembly line to remove the excess boxes that are no longer required. The produce packer must store the pre-assembled boxes for future use, which requires extra storage space and leads to potential damage of the boxes that are stacked awaiting future use. In addition, the assembly line now must be refilled with pre-assembled boxes (i.e., container bottoms and lids) to correctly indicate the different content and/or private-label customer. This results in inefficiencies in the assembly line process, increased change-over time required to remove the incorrect boxes and replace them in the now empty assembly line with the correct boxes and requires additional storage for pre-assembled boxes that are not currently needed.
Successful operation of a produce packing business with different products and quality types as well as different private label customers requires that different lids be used for different customers and different produce content. Unfortunately, the conventional lidding apparatus is incapable of operation with different types of lids. Therefore, it can be appreciated that there is a significant need for an apparatus and method for the automatic selection of different lid types. The present invention provides this and other advantages as will be apparent from the following detailed description and accompanying figures.
A fruit packaging apparatus and method automatically tracks containers of fruit and directs each container to a uniquely selecting lidding station where a selected lid is applied to the produce container. In an exemplary embodiment, the apparatus comprises a symbology marker affixed to the container to identify the container. A symbology reader reads the printed symbology and determines therefrom a selected lidding station to which the container will be directed. At the selected lidding station a container lid is automatically placed on the container.
In one embodiment, the symbology marker is a printed symbology, such as a bar code. In this embodiment, the symbology reader is a bar code reader. The symbology may indicate the contents of the container and/or the identity of a distributor of the container.
The apparatus may further comprise a conveyor assembly to transport containers to the selected lidding station. A stop mechanism halts the forward progress of the container at the selected lidding station and allows the container to be moved off of the conveyor assembly for insertion into the selected lid. The complete package, including the container and selected lid, may subsequently be moved back onto the conveyor apparatus for transport along an assembly line.